User Reviews

Well since it is a grocery store you can't expect too much. However, if you are expecting a beer while you eat there forget it. And service is non existent. You have to get your food and then sit down. They do have a lovely sitting area, but you can't drink there.

I grew up in Canandaigua, and this was my grocery store for the majority of my later adolescence. As such, the 5 and 20 location has seen me in some of the more awkward phases of my life ... pimpled ... fat ... publicly, well nevermind.

On my last trip home I was looking to find a few drinkable beers to make my time in the 'daigua pass painlessly and Wegmans was recommended to me. I went, and was somewhat shocked at what I found tucked away in the far back corner of the store.

A legitimate craft bottle shop, replete with mix and match 6-packs, domestic bombers from all over (to this day they still have Ithaca Eleven sitting on the shelves ... right next to shipyard XXX) and an imposing belgian section by any grocery store standard (even if they do mix in the NY Ommegang and the Canadian Unibrue into the "belgian" section).

If I were rating this by grocery store standards, this would be among the highest ratings I could give, by bottle shop standards, it's just a touch below average. I will say that the selection here seems less picked over than it is at other wegmans in the area (although the Penfield location has Old Rasputin and Blithering Idiot mixed into their $10 mix/match 6 selection ... worth picking dry, imho).

First off, there's no service. This is a grocery store, with a pretty big walk-in beer coller in the back left hand side of the store. As with all Wegmans, they have a really solid selection of craft beer (obviously leaning toward the sessionable kind).

Here's what was there the last time I went: a big Oktoberfest display (Saranac, Sam Adams, Becks, Paulaner, Spaten, Saranac Pumpkin, Post Road Pumpkin, Blue Moon Pumpkin, Southern Tier Harvest). Sam Adams available included the Boston Lager, Sam Light, Cherry Wheat, Black Lager, Brown Ale. This particular Wegmans seems to be in love with the Saranac line, so there's plenty to choose from them in both six-packs and 12-packs. Good selection of Southern Tier sixers (Porter, Extraordinary Ale, IPA, Hop Sun) and the 12 pack with the Tripel in it. Brooklyns on hand include the Lager, Pennant Ale, Brown Ale, East India Pale Ale, and the 12-pack with the Chocolate Stout in it. Some Wolavers, Ellicottville, Ithaca (Pale Ale, Cascazilla, Brown Ale, Partly Sunny, Apricot Wheat). Lots of Magic Hat (#9, Fat Angel, various 12-packs, Blind Faith, Circus Boy, Jinx). J.W. Dundee's stuff in both six-packs (American Amber, Pale Ale, Honey Brown, and whatever the seasonal is--right now it's the IPA but there are some hefeweizen sixers still kicking around) to the aluminum bottles of Pale Ale and Honey Brown. And these are $4.99.

They always have all five Ommegangs in bombers and 4-packs, and a few Unibroues in bombers and 4-packs (La Fin du Monde, Maudite, Don de Dieu, Blanche de Chambly, Ephemere, Terrible, and Trois Pistoles) . And Duvel! Always! Ommegang bombers are under 5 bucks.

Oh, and the usual macro stuff. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. But the great thing about this place is that if you ever get invited anywhere, you don't even have to plan ahead and you can pick up some pretty great beer on the way.

The only drawback is that they card everybody. Everybody. If you're 75, they card you, and they won't sell to you unless you have ID. They're insane. I was with my just-turned-21 brother once buying beer, and the manager followed us out to the car to make sure we didn't have underaged kids in the car. I'm serious, they're obsessive about alcohol.